Robert meets World Podcast

There is a simple way of looking at life. You feel joy, and call it joy. You see a sign and read the letters as they are written. There is a second way of viewing life which asks, what is this sentence hiding from itself. The second way is known by Ricoeur as The Hermeneutics of Suspicion.

On the Eastern edge of Bali, a few hours from the bustling draw of Ubud is the small rural area of Sidemen.

A population of 39,000 split across 10 villages, some people say that Sidemen reflects Bali from 20 years ago. A place before the influx of investment capital into hospitality to support the growing tourism surge on the island.

A place of massive rice fields, subsistence farming and the classic Balinese gentleness that captures the heart of travellers.

Comparing this to the developed Canggu, flush with people, non-stop activities, and, for me, a fear of God in driving anything with more than two wheels down the small streets, I feel as though I've gone back in time in Sidemen. It's a peaceful place, a feeling of serenity.

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A quiet afternoon DJing in Golden Gate Park took an unexpected turn when a park ranger approached me—triggering a wave of immigration anxiety, panic over losing my visa, and an unexpected dive into legal philosophy.

In this video essay, I share a personal narrative about playing music along JFK Drive in San Francisco and how a brief encounter sparked a deeper realization about the "spirit of the law," regulation, and why human discretion keeps what you might assume is a rigid legal code habitable.

To do a plank..

Correctly..

Is a hard thing to do.

The instructor announced as we listened on the veranda of a steamy Costa Rican morning in San Jose.

Often, it looks easy to do from the outside...

Because we do not see the effort required,

From the inside.

Immediately, a Tibetan singing bowl was struck in the background: an elongated ringing followed by a trailing silence circling off into eternity - we held planking on our big toes. 

The quiet voice in my head hummed along as I walked.

Notice the “I” and the “Me”.

Pay attention to the "Me"

In a dream-like state, the sound of my footsteps down Fillmore street filled my ears with a predicable click and clack noise providing a background note for the inward process that was taking place. A process in which I found myself catching each and every thought that the mind attempted to race after, having sprung free like a jailbroken convict.

CHAPTERS

00:00:00 Introduction & What is Climate Adaptation?

00:03:15 The Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation

00:07:15 Insurance Trends as a Climate Risk Proxy

00:15:30 How Flooding Impacts the Housing Market

00:21:07 Home-Level Flood Protection for $0, $250, $250+; Municipalities offering $3K+ in subsidies to prevent flood

00:26:52 Extreme Weather Risks Across Canada

00:34:08 Corporate Risk & Financial Exposure

00:40:20 The real ROI for Adaptation: $2-10B / yr?

00:46:02 Dawn River and Central Waterfront Project

00:54:29 Global vs. Local Action

00:58:28 Community-Level Actions & Listener Resources

Extreme weather is driving catastrophic insurable losses in Canada, evidenced by record multi-billion-dollar damage and significant drops in flood-prone housing valuations.

In this podcast, Kathryn Bakos, Managing Director of Finance and Resilience at the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation talks about Canada's pivot from climate research to the practical, localized implementation of climate adaptation strategies.

In the Climate Centre's research, proactive risk reduction offers a massive return on investment, saving $2B to $10B in avoided costs for every dollar spent over a decade.

Bakos advocates for individual, zero-cost home maintenance to avoid flooding with major municipal infrastructure projects, corporate physical risk disclosures, and community-driven action, demonstrating that while global emissions mitigation remains vital, building true resilience requires immediate, hands-on intervention at the local level.

Reports from the Intact Finance Centre for Climate Adaptation:

Climate-Ready Guides: https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/climate-ready-infographics/

Reports:

https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/recent-reports/

Treading Water: Impact of Catastrophic Flooding on Canada's Housing Market

https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/treading-water-impact-of-catastrophic-flooding-on-canadas-housing-market/

Transitioning from Rhetoric to Action: Integrating Physical Climate

https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/integrating-physical-climate-change-risk-into-institutional-investing/

Change and Extreme Weather Risk into Institutional Investing

https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/integrating-physical-climate-change-risk-into-institutional-investing/

Municipal Flood Risk Check-Up: https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/municipal-flood-risk-check-up/

My heart felt just about ready to explode out of my chest.

But, before I could catch my breath, Kru Top ran to the push sled.

Standing on top of it and yelled out to me:

TAXI !

I pushed the 75kg fighter across the gym and back in genuine difficulty, as I gasped for air.

But, Kru Top’s amusement from his taxi trip was short lived.

Despite being one of the more brutal striking sports in martial arts, Muay Thai possesses a deeply transformative and spiritual dimension.

If we can look beyond the fighting of combat sports, we uncover a sacred, transformative architecture shared by most martial arts across the globe (from the Zen philosophy of Karate and the "gentle way" of Judo, to the ego-stripping rituals of Western boxing).

In doing so, we can see the martial arts is about much more than competition; instead it is an act of perfecting the self.

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What reason is there, really, to do all this writing you ask?

Is it perhaps because on the empty pages one can, as Robert Johnson puts, in the domain of the psychological unconscious,

“Clothe the invisible forces [unseen and] to make [them] visible.”​​Inner Work p. 21

That is, one can make apparent the continuous inward monologue of the skull and enliven it to reality. But surely it is not only this. You see, in the white spaces of empty lines one can be the most truthful with oneself, and in this truth the self can really be seen. The individual, to some degree, prays earnestly that one day he or she will really be seen and taken in full. But equally, within this, there is a complete terror as to the vulnerable position it puts one in.

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I’m standing alone in a University Community Center basement classroom. Beige, brown and black tiled, dull, and lifeless walls enclose the space with a cast of around 18 empty chairs and tables.

Overhead, a projector scatters light onto a white screen with a PowerPoint presentation reading “Expect The Unexpected” in black font to an orange background (apparently I failed the Intro to Perfect PowerPoint Presentations 101 class).

It’s intensely quiet, only the sound of my inner monologue and what I have to do holds next. It’s around 7PM in the evening, not many students are on campus, voluntarily. It’s the third time I’ve run through my speech, enunciating the words and accentuating the tone and points.

I practice my walk. I practice my pacing. I practice a confident grin and pause held before I drop the next devastating idea. #siliconvalley #ambition #personalessay #selfmythology

I watched the teenager pull a copy of Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus from the shelf and glance it over with passive interest. Front to back, back to front, then opening a section in the middle to inspect if it sparked any curiosity. I always enjoyed this part of visiting a bookstore, people watching as a cursory delight; It was the complimentary champagne offered at the entry hall reception before a great banquet. The joy comes from observing what ignites imagination and intrigue in others. Watching someone discover a book from the shelf that I’ve read, and wondering to myself: what did I feel, think, and not know before reading that title, what drew me to that book, what point in their life are they at?

He closed the title and proceeded to attempt re-shelving it. Surprised, I felt the need to intervene. I interjected, rather rudely, as a condescending voice attempting to guide one towards a particular path.

Naturally, I was referring to Camus’ striking opening paragraph that hit me like an iced bucket of water years prior: